This is strange. I am completely out of my personal comfort zone. Yes, I have actually done some color photography (and even worked up my courage to share it).

My good friend Arthur Meyerson is visiting Vancouver. Brought him up from Texas to do a couple of workshops and a 5 day photographic tour that will take us to the 'real' west coast of Canada, Tofino and the Pacific Rim National Park. Arthur has been up here in Vancouver annually for the past 5 years, teaching workshops, seminars, and photo tours with Vancouver Photo Workshops.

For those of you familiar with Arthur's work, you know he is all about color. In fact, I am not alone beliefing that he is one of the best color Photographers working today. Inspired by his visit I was looking at a few images I shot on my most recent trip to the Canadian Prairies. And then it happened. I decided that I really liked the color that was present in my original photographs.

I always shoot RAW and convert to black and white on the computer. I consider myself as a photographer who 'sees in black and white'. I've been working on refining that vision ever since I picked up my first camera. In the past friends and students have often pointed out that they liked at least some of my images in color, but I myself have never even considered not making the conversion to black and white.

Until today!

So here you go Arthur! Your inspiration has made me produce my first long exposure photographs in color. As you always tell your students, it's good for us to leave our comfort zones and try something new. I couldn't agree more. So here it is!

I am so glad I made this leap. And there may be more images to come.....gotta stay tuned for that. For now, I like these two images posted below. In fact, I like them so much that I decided to include them in a gallery exhibition themed 'The Color of Light', showing at PhotoHaus Gallery until May 13th, 2011.

I had the honour of meeting (and working) with acclaimed NYC Photographer Jay Maisel on numerous occasions. I remember Jay telling his students that for a color photograph to be successful, color has to be the essential ingredients. If the impact of the image would be the same in black and white, then why didn't you shoot it that way? Why did you choose to include color if it doesn't add to the significance of the photograph?

I hope you agree that the color in the above photographs adds to the impact of both scenes. The golden light of the setting sun makes me remember why I decided to wait for 3 hours before taking this shot...

As always I welcome your feedback. Please do let me know what you think.

Oh, and before I leave you today here is a quick snapshot of Arthur Meyerson posing with my wife Xenija in front of my images as displayed at PhotoHaus Gallery.